I am very grateful to those noble Lords who have stayed up until this hour to discuss this important amendment, and I grateful to the Minister for his answer. However, I am disappointed by it.
On the argument around these regulations being temporary, we now have the evidence of their success, as we have heard. Since they have been introduced, the World Health Organization and medical professionals have been clear that their advice is that this service should stay. The removal of this service represents a step back, when in all other areas of telemedicine we are moving forward.
On evidence, we really should be looking at the largest ever UK study into abortion, which took place just before telemedicine was introduced and just after. That showed that the rate of complications fell significantly. On complications themselves, the same procedure happens and it is going to continue to happen. Voting against this amendment is not going to remove early medical abortion; it will just allow women to maintain the choice of taking a pill at home.
I want to briefly address the issues around vulnerable women and safeguarding because that is incredibly important. Of course, safeguarding is a really essential part of all healthcare. But there is evidence, as noble Lords have cited, that telemedicine is helping to improve safeguarding, with providers reporting a major uplift in safeguarding disclosures, including from survivors of domestic and sexual violence—particularly from women in abusive relationships. It is more common to be forced to keep a pregnancy than to end one.
Those who work closely on gender-based violence, coercion and abuse will tell you that the solution to reproductive coercion is to get stronger reproductive
rights. Women’s Aid confirmed to me just this evening that it is fully supportive of keeping the service, as making abortion access more difficult does not prevent coercion. In fact, it does the opposite. The very fact that vulnerable women are being used as an argument against maintaining the service which is going to benefit them, I find very difficult to take.
This is not a debate about early medical abortion. As I said, it will remain legal. It is not about broader abortion. It is about whether women can continue to choose, receive and take medicine in the comfort and safety of their own home. It does not bring in a new service; it would simply avoid removing an existing service that women are using safely.
I really do not want to keep anyone any longer, and I appreciate there is diversity of opinion in your Lordships’ House. I respect that people have deep-seated views on abortion. But I believe we should listen to the medical experts who are clear on this matter. We should listen to the women who want, need and will use this service. We should stand strongly against what would be a rollback of women’s rights. Telemedical abortion care has been repeatedly proven by peer-reviewed, clinician-led large-scale studies to be safe, effective, accessible and preferred by women. It is what the medical professionals advise, and it is what women want. I believe that is what should guide us in this vote. I would like to test the opinion of the House.